Read: Dorothy | Vera Bonny

On our parlor wall she hung
Rubber loosed hair a bunch
Dressed up in a gown
Maybe Cinderella’s sort
Piercing eyes looked straight
In black and white the paint
Tear drops smeared her cheeks
I always thought her cute
As i grew, her view
Turned sadder than i knew
With every passing day
I took a closer gaze
“Dorothy”, i whispered
Almost in a whimper
It must have been her name
If only she exists
I saw her in my school
Beneath the mango tree
Alone, a weeping child
Sometimes in hallways too
I could not comfort her
Only watched from afar
Then one day in my dreams
She turned her back to me
I ran and screamed her name
Her face went up in flames
I woke up with a scream
Ashen taste on my lips
Then she disappeared
Years later i thought of her
Journeyed back to the old house
Faced that part of the wall
Where her portrait stood
But it wasn’t there
She has gone away
And all her sadness with her.

Vera Bonny (Rubyvee).
From Kaduna State.
Grew up in Jos,Plateau State.
A Mass Communication graduate.
A journalist, writer, story teller and OAP.
A Lover of books, music and movies.